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Do you know which country has the most women in its parliament? It is certainly not in a developed country like America nor in Europe or in Asia. It's in the Central African country of Rwanda.
According to the UNDP's 2013 Human Development Report titled "The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World", more than 51 percent of Rwandan parliament members are currently women, and countries like Andora, Cuba, Senegal, South Africa and Nicaragua have a better representation of women in their parliaments.
Likewise, Sweden, Finland and Iceland appeared in the top 10 positions with the highest number of females in their parliaments. What about Indonesia?
Based on the World Bank 2011 data, women constitute 50.14 percent of Indonesia's total population of 244 million people, but they occupy only 18.2 seats in the House of Representatives, much below the ideal quota of 30 percent set by the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Currently, according to the UNDP, Indonesia even lags behind Laos, Vietnam and Singapore in terms of women's presence in lawmaking bodies.
The UN report also said that Indonesia had the worst record with 106th rank on the 2012 Gender Inequality Index in Southeast Asia. Indonesia lags behind its ASEAN peers such as Singapore (13th rank), Malaysia (42), Vietnam (48), Philippines (77), Myanmar (80), Cambodia (96) and Laos (100).
Brunei Darussalam's rank was not mentioned in the report.
In Indonesia, based on the Election Law No. 8/2012, all the political parties must allocate at least 30 percent of seats in the national, regional and local legislative bodies to women.
But male-dominated political parties are reluctant to propose women candidates in the legislative elections.
For example, the Islam-based United Development Party (PPP) harshly criticized the Election Law on women candidates as "not rational".
"All the regulations must be realistic. In reality, [finding] women candidates is not easy. The KPU must make laws that are rational," PPP chairman and Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said early this month as reported by Kompas.com.
"Only a small number of women want to be politicians. In the end, we will deceive ourselves by just fulfilling the quota".
Women and activists have voiced dissenting arguments against Suryadarma's standpoint. "The government is committed to implementing the regulation regarding allocation of 30 percent of seats in legislative bodies to women. We want to encourage all the political parties to implement this regulation. It will be a progressive step in our democracy," Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry's deputy for women's rights protection Luly Altruiswaty told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
While commenting on the so called "qualified" women legislative candidates, Luly said that Indonesia had thousands of qualified candidates.
"We have never had a shortage of talented women in Indonesia. Why do people only ask about qualified women? Why do they never ask about qualified men?," she said.
Media reports showed that several lawmakers were involved in corrupt practices. Some of them were already jailed, and were notorious for not attending many House sessions.
Some of them take a nap or play with their electronic gadgets during important House deliberations.
House members' frequent unnecessary foreign trips also, of late, have come under public scrutiny. Once, former president Abdurrahman Wahid compared House members to kindergarten student
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